A plane under maintenance. [Photo/Xiamen Daily]
A shipment of aircraft engine cowlings imported for bonded repair was recently loaded and dispatched from HAECO Xiamen to HAECO Composite Structures (Jinjiang) Co.
Unlike before, the cowlings no longer had to be shipped overseas for the transfer, marking the first time a new outbound bonded repair model has been adopted in the Xiamen Free Trade Zone, and the first such case in China involving an aviation bonded repair company located outside a special customs supervision zone.
The Administration of the Xiamen FTZ, together with customs, taxation, commerce, and environmental protection authorities, has led reform pilots and rolled out aviation maintenance measures in Xiamen.
The aviation maintenance base. [Photo/Xiamen Daily]
These efforts have built China's largest one-stop aviation maintenance base for third-party clients, which now serves customers in nearly 30 countries and regions across Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
In 2017, Xiamen FTZ became the first batch in China approved to pilot bonded repair outside special customs supervision zones. By August 2026, Xiamen Customs had supervised more than 680 billion yuan ($101.5 billion) in imports and exports for outbound bonded aviation repair, the highest in the country.
In August, the Ministry of Commerce and eight other government departments issued a guideline to promote bonded aviation repair, introducing a series of facilitation measures, including allowing certain repair work to be outsourced to other companies. This opens up new opportunities for the growth of bonded aviation repair in Xiamen.